California Condor Eben McMillan 15 January 1964 At 2:00 p.m. Two immature Red-tailed Hawks were hunting along the east slope of Hopper Mountain. These hawks would mount up to a height of about 200 feet above the surface of the mountain slope and hover for periods of up to seventy seconds, with wings outstretched, tail fanned out, head pointing downward and flapping the wings gently as they held their balance on the wind. Now and then one or the other of these hawks would drop to the ground in a slow glide, but on no occasion did I see them come up with anything in their talons. These immature Red-tailed Hawks did very well at remaining stationary when hovering; for on several occasions they would do so below the opposite horizon from me where I could get a spot in the distance landscape to fix their movement against and on more than one of these occasions I would loose sight of the bird by its remaining so motionless while hovering in the air that it was difficult to pick it out from the distant scene even though my eye was fixed on it with the binoculars. Nevertheless when these hawks hovered near and above me it was easy to make out a slight fluttering of the wings and the wings, also, from below could be seen to be pulled in and stretched out, sort of like letting in and playing out sails to accommodate variations in wind velocity. Condor show no sign of this fluttering or paying in, or letting out, the wings when hovering, but seem to just hang there like stuffed birds, not moving a muscle or moving their position. On the lee side of Hopper Mountain, directly over the crest, the sharp, cold wind, seemed to race on above, leaving a space with little or no wind, and, when the sun shone in on these areas it was quite warm, Providing of course that one remained close to the ground.